This week, starting tomorrow, the Britannica Blog will conduct one of its occasional fora/freeforalls, this one on the topic of Great Books. Not so much the set of volumes available for purchase from a certain publishing company (Encyclopaedia Britannica, set pictured here), but the idea that there are certain identifiable books that are the best of the best and that reading them ought to be the core of, or at least a significant element in, the education of the young. The debate over Great Books seems to have subsided somewhat lately, but it has been a perennial one for a century or more.

I know where I stand on the issue, although I’m not entirely certain that I know why. What I want to suggest today to those who are interested in the matter and who plan to watch this week’s battle – let’s hope it’s a battle; how boring if everyone turns out to be in agreement, eh? – is that underlying the Great Books discussion is a more fundamental question that I expect many of the contributors will address but is ripe now for you to consider ahead of time: What is education for?

Do we educate our young so that they will find gainful and rewarding employment? Do we educate them so that they will be good citizens? Do we educate them so that they will have disciplined and well-stocked minds? Do we educate them mainly to get them out of the house?

For each of these purposes, what then should education consist in? Is it possible to educate for any two or all of them at once? Assuming we agree that the 3 R’s – readin’, ‘ritin’, and ‘rithmetic – should be taught to everyone, is there anything else that would be common to all these ends?

Do we educate everybody to the same purpose, or do we divide them up somehow? On what basis? Is there something undemocratic about this early sorting? And if there is, is that a bad thing?

Gosh, I could go on, but you get the idea. It may seem odd, but these are all unsettled questions. They may be, some of them, unsettleable. All the better for a lively forum.